Windows Tips

[idrob]

For whatever reason when ever I install a clean version (as opposed to upgrade) of Windows, It will install generic drivers for my hardware, so what I have been doing for some years now is keep a spare copy of windows/system 32 on a USB drive and direct windows manually to where the drivers are kept.

Recently I came across another method of saving the windows drivers to a folder which might come in handy for others.


Create a "Drivers" folder for example: "C:\Drivers" then run this from command prompt as admin to export the drivers:

Dism /online /Export-Driver /Destination:C:\Drivers

Then when you've installed windows run this command to import the drivers into your new windows operating system:

Dism /online /Add-Driver /Driver:C:\Drivers /Recurse

 

[Rat]

does this include drivers needed for specific drivers for say Dell or just drivers for windows only ?

 

[idrob]

does this include drivers needed for specific drivers for say Dell or just drivers for windows only ?

What ever drivers you've got installed on your system will be extracted to the folder you create.

So its all drivers.

 

[unison]

For whatever reason when ever I install a clean version (as opposed to upgrade) of Windows, It will install generic drivers for my hardware, so what I have been doing for some years now is keep a spare copy of windows/system 32 on a USB drive and direct windows manually to where the drivers are kept.

Recently I came across another method of saving the windows drivers to a folder which might come in handy for others.


Create a "Drivers" folder for example: "C:\Drivers" then run this from command prompt as admin to export the drivers:

Dism /online /Export-Driver /Destination:C:\Drivers

Then when you've installed windows run this command to import the drivers into your new windows operating system:

Dism /online /Add-Driver /Driver:C:\Drivers /Recurse

works a treat

 

[alimac]

it does work a treat

i thought this was common knowledge lol

my mistake

 

[Rat]

Another (dumb) question :Hit:

so if it backs up all drivers, if I was to reinstall a fresh windows it obviously wouldn't install any junk drivers that I won't install from the original dell I backed up from ?

 

[idrob]

Another (dumb) question :Hit:

so if it backs up all drivers, if I was to reinstall a fresh windows it obviously wouldn't install any junk drivers that I won't install from the original dell I backed up from ?

the backup comes from system 32 where windows keeps only the essential drivers, so you are only backing up the essential drivers and no junk drivers.

 

[Rat]

Thanking you

 

[Rat]

7gb worth of drivers backed up
Cheers @idrop rep added

 

[wiz569]

7GB seems excessive m8

 

[idrob]

7GB seems excessive m8

I was thinking that as-well, what hardware can one possibly be using to accumulate 7 gigs of drivers but I was too chicken to ask.

 

[Rat]

tbh I thought the same, but I only copied the command


Ive not installed much on it tbh its only a few months old

 

[idrob]

tbh I thought the same, but I only copied the command
View attachment 89343

Ive not installed much on it tbh its only a few months old

I only installed this version of windows a few days ago and from yesterday to now it has installed 9 more drivers, so this time when I run the command it has 17 drivers instead of yesterdays 8. but still the drivers folder is only 630 MB.

Perhaps some one else who has had windows installed for a long time can try the command and tell us how many drivers are backed up and how much space it takes.

 

[unison]

when i ran this it did 25 drivers

 

[wiz569]

I will try it later lads

 

[Abu Baniaz]

I'm getting this using Windows 7 64 bit. Official version from Dell.

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[wiz569]

I will try it later lads

23 drivers total of 875MB

Running Windows 8.1 64bit, installed roughly 6 months

 

[idrob]

Thanks guys, the command Dism was introduced with win 8 so it wont work with win 7.

I don't know why Rat has 7gigs worth of drivers but as we can see for the rest of us its normal.

I guess we have to study this command in more detail if we are going to figure that one out:


https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh825236.aspx

 

[Rat]

Could only happen to me lol

 

[alimac]

Rat strikes again lol